In various technical fields, power saving and power efficiency is an important aspect of product design. While energy efficiency is generally desirable in view of costs associated with energy generation, it is also of particular relevance in the case of battery operated devices. In this case, a better energy efficiency can increase the time a device can be operated without recharging or changing the battery (also referred to as battery life).
One example of devices where energy efficiency is considered to be of high relevance are IoT (Internet of Things) devices, which are electronic devices equipped with communication functionalities which are utilized without specific user activity, e.g., sensors or actuators. The potential number of such devices is expected to be much higher (exceeding 50 Billion in the next few years) than in the case of conventional user operated communication devices (such as mobile phones), which means that these devices may also cause significant energy consumption.
In the case of battery operated devices, energy efficiency also has an impact on usability. For example, high energy consumption and associated poor battery life may adversely affect user experience and render a product unattractive to consumers.
During development of a product, it may however be a demanding task to identify problems causing excessive energy consumption and to solve such problems, specifically in view of the fact that such problems may arise from software running on the device, hardware running on the device, or from interaction of the software and hardware.
There are measurement equipment for current, power and energy measurements available that can be used in product development, ranging from simple measurement tools to advanced systems for power analysis. In many cases, expensive advanced systems as well as high levels of experience and expertise of developers are needed to identify and solve problems causing excessive energy consumption.